Personal Finance Project

Personal Finance Presentation
OVERVIEW: This project is design for planning your financial future. If any of this planning has already occurred (e.g. you already have a mortgage) you are encouraged to adapt the project to your current situation. You can also include your spouse’s income if applicable. I want it to be useful to you, so use your real life whenever possible. You don’t need to cite sources for when you use information from your actual life.
PRESENTATION: This project has you create a slideshow of about 10-15 slides. Research the best practices for a professional presentation (number of words per slide, recommended fonts, etc.). The slideshow submitted in OHM will be confidential and should have all the requested information below.
REQUIREMENTS: Citations and pictures are required for this project. Here’s how you know where you need which one:
*indicates a citation is needed
#indicates that you need to show where the calculations came from, which can
be from Excel, online calculators, etc. – take a screenshot @indicates a picture is needed
CITATIONS: Pasting a URL address is not a citation! View this video on what they are and why they are important. The video also shows you how to cite sources in a PowerPoint. The footer style is the preferred method. This site breaks down how to actually make the citations for different sources. Here’s an example of what it should look like:
Notice that the information presented is the main focus, and the citations are in small font at the bottom.

PRESENTATION TOPICS: There are five topics to be covered in your slides with a bonus
topic for five extra points.
1. Career
a. State your future career and where you plan to live@
b. Find the average salary for your future career*
c. Approximately how much will be taken out of your paychecks for taxes, social
security, insurance, retirement, etc.*# You can look up what the percentages are online (site your source) and then show the amount taken out of your pay for each.
d. What is left for your monthly take-home pay?#
2. Student Loans
a. Based on the degree you need for your career and the college(s) where you’ll get that degree, what will your total student loan debt be when you graduate?#@
b. If you will not have any student loan debt when you graduate, then research what the average amount is and use that as your figure to do the calculations.*@
c. Find out what the average interest rate on student loans is now* (or use the actual interest rate on your loans if possible).
d. Calculate the monthly payments on this debt if you had a 20 year repayment plan, include either a screenshot of Excel or of the site you used to make the calculation. You do not need to calculate by hand. #
3. Housing
a. Find a listing for a house (or apartment/condo) for sale in the area you plan to live. Make sure to include a link to the listing as well as a picture of the house.*@
b. From the cost of the house calculate a 20% down payment#
c. Determine the closing costs*#
d. Research what a typical mortgage is right now, the rate and length.*
e. Determine insurance costs#
f. Determine the amount of the mortgage#
g. Calculate the monthly payments and total amount paid back on the loan.
Include either a screenshot of Excel or of the site you used to make the
calculation. You do not need to calculate by hand. #
h. Now find comparable housing for rent. Again, include a link to the listing and a
picture.*@
i. Determine the monthly cost of the lease and any insurance or other fees#
j. Now, with all your data, is it better renting or buying? Discuss from a financial
perspective and a personal preference perspective.
4. Budgeting
Create a table in Excel to comparing your living expenses for renting and owning. The first column should list all important expenses such as: heating and air- conditioning costs, water and waste, student loans, mortgage or rent, food, transportation, entertainment, cloths, retirement savings, health insurance, car insurance, credit cards, pets, children, etc. The second column will include estimates for how much is spent on each category in a month as a renter. The third column will have estimates for how much is spent each month as a homeowner. Include a total row at the very bottom. Under the table, subtract your totals from your projected income each month. Is there any left? What is your plan with the leftover money if there is some? What is your plan if there is not enough? Use the table to create two pie charts: one for renting and one for owning.
5. Retirement
a. Go to this site. Adjust the information to match your situation with what you have now and what you’ll have once you will be working full time with your career salary. Move this marker to 80%, which is the low end.
b. What does it say you’ll have per month for retirement?
c. What does it say you’ll need? What does this mean exactly?
d. What can you do to ensure you’re able to have a happy retirement?@
Bonus – Retirement Account
a. Estimate when you will retire, how many years you will work before retirement, and how many years you will live after retirement.
b. Use an Excel spreadsheet to model a retirement annuity where you put all the extra money from part 3 into the account. Research what a typical interest rate is for a retirement annuity and use that for your APR. Use monthly compounding and monthly deposits. If you did not have any extra money in part 3 then just use $500 a month for the deposits. How much money will you have saved when you retire? How much of that is interest?#
c. On the same spreadsheet model the payout of that annuity. Use the total amount saved up before retirement as the starting balance (principal) and determine how much you can withdraw from the account monthly so that it lasts through your whole retirement. Use monthly compounding and monthly withdrawals.#
You may only submit 1 file in OHM, but if you accidentally submit the wrong one, email me the correct one by the due date or use LatePasses if you are emailing it to me late. Use screenshots to capture your graphs and charts from Excel. You may only submit one file labeled with your last name. The screenshots should only capture the pertinent information and not your whole screen.

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